Name a city without the letter "a" in it

[Laurence Horn]

Wouldn't there be lots of such cities in the backwoods of China?  Or has English (if not Latin) already penetrated too far for that to be possible?  On WB's model, how about, say, Nineveh, or any other ancient city that disappeared before contact with Latin-alphabet users, e.g. Cuzco, Macchu Picchu, etc.?  After all, it just said "Name a city…"

LH

On Jul 19, 2014, at 3:46 PM, W Brewer wrote:

> TZ:  <<the answer is that there's no city without the letter "A">>
> WB:  Doh!!! Okay, here's a monkey wrench: No letter <A, a> in Hattusa. (The
> Hittites used cuneiform.)
> 
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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org